[ww]

If you love what you do you will rarely find someone that can compete with you. That being said I am a non-degreed programmer of 14 years experience. Having researched this topic many times I believe Michael Spence has cornered why and how a degree is useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Spence

To summarize a degree or certification is a signal of private information from an agent to a principal. Nothing more, nothing less. If you can replace that signal with another kind of signal (ie experience/references/monument made in your name) you don't need it.

[mrtron]

I would add something to why a degree is useful: A degree forces you to learn things that you would otherwise not learn. I hate stats, but I had to learn stats. It has surprisingly proved useful in my work from time to time. The same follows with about 100 other things I was forced to learn, and that have popped up. Usually they are relatively obscure topics you have no interest in and avoid, but occasionally they are whole subjects that you just dislike.